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Mac trojan expands to affect Photoshop CS4

updated 10:50 am EST, Mon January 26, 2009

by MacNN Staff

Mac trojan hits Photoshop

A second Mac trojan is being spread through pirated software, Intego warns. Following the discovery of a trojan linked with copies of iWork '09, the security firm says it has now found a variant, attached to pirated versions of Photoshop CS4. OSX.Trojan.iServices.B also grants a remote user root access; the new trojan is associated with the crack application however, and is spawned under a different name whenever the crack is run.

If a user is tricked into entering his administrator password, executables are also copied to fake user and system DivX folders. At this stage the trojan will begin listening on a random TCP port, and making regular connections to two different IP addresses.

The infected version of Photoshop is said to have been downloaded approximately 5,000 times already, and is once again described as an "extremely serious" threat, best avoided by either avoiding pirated copies of Photoshop or updating virus definitions. Active malware remains rare in the Mac world; the iServices variants are in fact believed to be two of the earliest confirmed trojans.

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TOTAL_COMMENTS Comments

One could simply not download from bittorrent sites or LimeWire, the equivalent of buying medicine from the people hanging out in the alley behind Walgreen's, instead of having your prescription filled inside the store.

repeat: A trojan is not a virus, a trojan is not a virus... A trojan, by definition, requires action by the (stupid) user where a virus can go scuttling off on it's own sweet way. Frankly, anyone who gets taken-in by a trojan (or a fake e-mail) deserves what they get, particularly if they have an eye-patch and a parrot on their shoulder!

Thank you virus checker guys for helping me to steal software. I was becoming a little worried that I might suffer some consequences. And thank you Macnn for letting me know that the virus checkers are helping to make my stealing stuff a trojan free experience! What is the world coming to when I can't steal something and not suffer for it?

They are at it again - suddenly 5,000 Mac users, yesterday it was 20,000 Mac users and yet PB, MN and BTJunkie's downloaders say "nothing here". Selling anti-virus software to the Mac community is a very lonely business. Obviously Intego needs to scare up some sales. And MacNN is helping them out! Hooey - it is all Hooey.

As a Mac-toting securitygeek, I have to ask what's the big deal here? This malware installs after you type your administrator password.....at least here the user will KNOW if they're installing something (trojanned or clean) on their system by typing in their password. So in this case, the user knows that something's being installed.....it's up to them to verify the source of the file being installed and place the appropriate level of (mis)trust in it. This malware is not installing itself on its own -- something which, I believe, still plagues the Windows world; namely, when stuff gets downloaded/installed/run w/o the user being aware of it

Of course, once you type your admin password to install a Mac program, you give the installer free reign on your system, which is a given. So when you think about it, this is nothing more than a trojan installer that 'tricks' the user into installing the malware within. Nothing substantially new here, just a slight evolution in the package/product used to distribute the malware.

Hence, for all the hoo-haa over this malware, IMHO it's not a big deal IMHO and the only take-away from this "threat" that folks should remember is simple: "Caveat Torrentor". :)

As a Mac-toting securitygeek, I have to ask what's the big deal here? This malware installs after you type your administrator password.....at least here the user will KNOW if they're installing something (trojanned or clean) on their system by typing in their password. So in this case, the user knows that something's being installed.....it's up to them to verify the source of the file being installed and place the appropriate level of (mis)trust in it. This malware is not installing itself on its own -- something which, I believe, still plagues the Windows world; namely, when stuff gets downloaded/installed/run w/o the user being aware of it

Of course, once you type your admin password to install a Mac program, you give the installer free reign on your system, which is a given. So when you think about it, this is nothing more than a trojan installer that 'tricks' the user into installing the malware within. Nothing substantially new here, just a slight evolution in the package/product used to distribute the malware.

Hence, for all the hoo-haa over this malware, IMHO it's not a big deal IMHO and the only take-away from this "threat" that folks should remember is simple: "Caveat Torrentor". :)

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